In the liquid crystal display apparatus in the OCB mode, since the initial state of OCB liquid crystal is different from a bend alignment at the time of displaying and is, for example, a splay alignment, it is necessary for transition of the alignment to a bend alignment to display images while maintaining the state of transition to the bend alignment.
In order to ensure this initial transition, a liquid crystal display apparatus in which transition nucleuses for ensuring and speeding up the transition are provided in respective display pixels is proposed in the related art (for example, see Japanese Application Kokai 2003-107506). The initial transition is promoted respectively in the transition nucleus in each pixel, for example, by applying a lateral electric field to the OCB liquid crystal.
In the liquid crystal display apparatus in the OCB mode as described above, a time required for the initial transition when the power is ON (hereinafter referred to as “initial transition time”) depends significantly to the panel temperature or the transition voltage of a liquid crystal panel.
The initial transition time increases with decrease in transition voltage as shown in FIG. 17, and increases with lowering in panel temperature as shown in FIG. 18.
Referring to FIG. 19, a case of applying a transition voltage Vt in the initial transition time in the related art will be described in detail. An example of so-called a dot inversion drive, in which the polarity of a pixel voltage Vp is inverted with respect to a constant common voltage Vcom so that the polarities of the voltages to be applied to the liquid crystal is different from the adjacent pixels when displaying the image will be described.
The polarity of the common voltage Vcom is inverted between negative and positive with reference to 0V as a reference potential every certain period, for example, on a frame to frame basis for applying a high voltage.
The pixel voltage Vp of the pixel electrode at each pixel is inverted according to the dot inversion drive when displaying the image. In this case, as shown in FIG. 19, the transition voltage Vt applied to the OCB liquid crystal varies from a pixel to pixel basis according to the polarity inversion of the pixel voltage Vp in each frame. Consequently, an integration value of the electric potential difference between the pixel electrode and a common electrode cannot be set to a large value, so that a sufficient transition voltage Vt cannot be secured as described above, and hence the initial transition time is increased.
In view of such problems described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a liquid crystal display apparatus in an OCB mode in which reduction of an initial transition time is enabled.